Oh Canada

I'm home now. Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope it's been enjoyable. :)

Clear.

Final days in Shanghai

After jumping off the train to Suzhou, we decided to go out to the House of Blues and Jazz to check out some live music. Sore disappointment lay ahead as we discovered an empty building on a quiet street where the venue used to be located. Tom had a back-up plan however, so we went to a bar where we enjoyed english conversation with the bartender for a couple of hours. We were the only ones there.

On Monday, we had a plan. Phase one was to visit the famous Yuyuan Garden, followed by tea at a fancy tea house and some Nanxiang steamed buns. The morning was a success, although the street merchants trying to sell us watches and iPhones really got to Tom after a while.



Our excursion through the winding alleys surrounding the garden was followed by a pricy visit to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. If you're into walking through the occasional glass tunnel to look at enormous fish, sharks and turtles, the aquarium is a good place to visit. Overall, I thought it was slightly overpriced ($25 admission), but it was still an interesting experience.




What better way to end the night than do dine with our friend Jing, who introduced us to Shanghai a couple of weeks ago. We had a tasty dim sum meal at Ding Tai Fung followed by some drinks at a reputable jazz bar, JZ Club. Now that's how you do it, Hangzhou.


Today should be pretty quiet. Not much on the agenda, besides battling robots at the Science and Technology museum and picking up our tailored clothing. Perhaps I'll enjoy some tea served through a 60cm spout in the evening. We'll see.

* * *

The Science and Technology museum was a complete bust. We were overwhelmed by thousands of children running and yelling while we walked past the rather mediocre exhibits. The highlight of the trip was ROBOT WORLD where we both failed at shooting arrows from a bow, but were soothed by a robotic piano performance. Hopefully dinner goes well. No battles with robot took place.


Only a few hours left!

Abort!

Last night in Hangzhou after parting with Fanny and Thomas, Tom and I decided to check out some live music that was playing at a nearby jazz cafe. It was just awful, even after a few beers. Avoid Friend's Jazz Bar in Hangzhou at all costs, unless you're interesting in old ladies swinging their hips and forgetting the words to songs while be backed by a mediocre band.

Today we were scheduled to take a four hour long train trip to Suzhou. Once we got on the train, however, we reconsidered. Our train would be passing through Shanghai, and would not be arriving in Suzhou until 6pm. After reading through the Lonely Planet's entry on the city, we decided that due to the weather and our limited time planned to be there (departing at noon the following day), we would not be able to truly enjoy what Suzhou has to offer. Thus, after a rather uncomfortable 3 hour train ride, we jumped off the train at Shanghai.

Ahhh. It feels good to be back.

Peter Ni Hao Bookmark

At long last, the time has arrived: your very own Peter Ni Hao bookmark canvas is now available! If you're feeling creative and want to throw some words on there and send it back to me, please do!



Suzhou in a few hours!

Goodbye Fanny and Thomas

Today we said goodbye to our traveling companions, Fanny and Thomas. I didn't know either of them before heading out to China, and boy, what a mistake that was. We had a fantastic time together and I am very much looking forward to when we meet up again.

















Pound it. Get it done.

Sorry, was that Debussy?

The four of us have been having a great time in Shanghai. We've been walking, shopping, and eating. Last night, Thomas, Fanny and I went out to have some dim sum and it was delicious! I couldn't believe the flavours coming out of some of the dishes we had. And get this: we mostly ordered vegetable plates. WOAH!! Awesome. I also had a mango lassi in the French Concession earlier in the day, so my digestive system was pretty happy with me.


Today was the day we'd all been waiting for. Thomas, an extraordinary amateur pianist, is here in Shanghai to perform in Pianestival, and tonight he showcased his talents. But before we dive into that part of the day, let's reminisce about the morning and afternoon!

Morning: Exploring the Shanghai Museum.





Afternoon: Buying 8 tailored shirts and a tailored suit.


And now on to the performance. For those of you who don't know Thomas Yu, check out the following video to get an idea of his stern personality and piano prowess.


Well, the truth is, he's a great guy and we've all been having a fantastic time together. For something a little more light-hearted before we move onto the brutal truths of the evening's performance, check out Thomas' arrangement of I Want You Back by Jackson 5 below.


All right, now that you've been sweetened up, here's how the night went down. The concert begins and the tiny venue is packed. Children are sitting at the front of the room away from their parents, and people are literally having conversations over the piano. At this point, Tom, Fanny and I were standing at the back of the room and could still hear the piano fairly well, albeit over the rustling of the crowd.

Midway through the third piece, somebody's cellphone goes off for a good 15 seconds. As you would expect, everyone was informed to be quiet and have their cellphones turned off during the concert. That, of course, doesn't apply to me, right? And so the rage began to build within me and my friends. It was only augmented when part way through the fourth piece, somebody who was delivering flowers barged into the room and loudly asked where the recipient was. Disastrous.


This was only the first performer. The audience seemed more well behaved for the second, or at least any rage that was felt seemed minuscule compared to that when Thomas, the third performer of the evening, took the stage. By this time, we were sitting in the second row. There were five children sitting down in front of the first row and they literally would not stop talking, making noise with paper and bags, banging their feet on the ground and thrusting their butts in the air with their heads firmly planted on the floor. Recall that this was a piano concert, not a puppet show.

It became nearly impossible to hear Thomas play. I caught beautiful glimpses of it in the rare few seconds of peace the children gave us, but the children were not the only ones disturbing the music: it seemed like a good time for the adults to do it as well. They ruffled bags and answered cellphones at will. Thomas, usually a very focused performer, had to get up and leave after his second of four pieces to try and find somebody to handle the noise issues.

Unfortunately, nobody was there and it wasn't until the fourth piece and encore, after Fanny and a few other audience members tried to control the children, that I was finally able to enjoy the music. The parts I heard were fantastic and if you ever get a chance to listen to this man play, do it! His musicality is off the charts, and he's a classy guy to boot.

It took a while for us all to relax after the show, but everyone's happy now. Heading out to Hangzhou on the 25th and Suzhou on the 26th then back to Shanghai for my final two days in China. Peace!

The Expo

The day finally arrived. Today I went to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China with Tom, Fanny, and Thomas.

Before I even arrived at the Expo, my day was off to a flying start. We had planned to extend our stay at our hostel for a few more days, but we found out that no twin rooms were available. Our plan was to meet up with Fanny and Thomas at 8am, which meant we had to pack up our room fast.

We hastily packed our room and set out to Fanny's hotel where we would leave our bags all day. One step out of the door and one of the receptionists at the hostel calls out to ask us if we've found a place to stay yet, just as she hangs up a telephone. It turns out somebody just canceled a reservation and we could continue staying in our room for one night. Back we went, dropped off the bags and headed to meet our friends, if only fifteen minutes late.

As it stands, we do not know where we'll be staying tomorrow night and are hoping that something clears up by morning. There are dormitory spaces available, but Tom prefers the twin, so the search will continue.


On to the Expo! Before the 35 degree weather got to us, we managed to enter the following five pavilions:

• Australia - was recommended by others, and had an awesome theatre, but awful content
• Belgium - free chocolate!
• Italy - the favourite by far; simply gorgeous; really awesome vertical orchestra.
• Canada - the bike-driven video was neat, and so was the reactive pond, but the gloomy closing video was in poor taste. Oh, and there were these men wearing very strange costumes running around, which was surprising.
• North Korea - hide your children, hide your wife

It seemed for the most part the pavilions were more interesting from the outside.








Anyway, it was a good day. I've been inundated with activity for the past few, however, and I really could use some rest, so I'm just taking it easy tonight. Perhaps tomorrow will include a visit to the Bund.

Beijing

Well today has been fun. Got up early (7:30am) and left immediately for the airport. My flight for Beijing left at 10:05am and I managed to arrive at the gate at 9:47am. PHEW!!

Upon arriving at the Beijing airport, my goal was to find out how to reach the metro. One of the signs pointed to something called the "Airport Express", and that sounded promising so I headed there. I guessed right and soon enough I was on the metro. Three transfers later (I had got off at the wrong stop first, since the signage was unclear), I arrived at my stop: Qianmen station. Now the only thing I had to do was find my hostel. Unfortunately, my only resource for navigating was the map in the Lonely Planet, which just wasn't good enough. I wandered around for around an hour before I found the hostel and thank goodness I did.


My time here is short, so all that wandering is going to make it difficult to see the sights I want. I managed to see Tiananmen Square today, and hope to see the Forbidden City on Monday before leaving back to Shanghai.


After checking out the square, I thought that a delicious meal of authentic Peking duck was in order, so I headed to the nearby Qianmen Quanjude location.


The food was spectacular. They carve the duck directly in front of your table and then one of the people working there will show you how to construct a delicious peking duck wrap, if you so choose. Did I mention how good it was? Unbelievable. It's all about the sauce though, so if you do have some, make sure to get extra! Oh, and be sure to arrive early, since there are outrageously long line-ups to get in.


The 25 minute wait before I was seated put some pressure on my pre-arranged Kung Fu show reservation at 6:30pm, but I managed to make it back to the hostel with a few minutes to spare. The show itself was pretty interesting. Contrary to what I expected, it wasn't just a slew of disjoint martial arts acts; instead, it was a story based around a monk who studied Kung Fu. The performers were great, and I'd recommend the show to anyone with some time to spare in Beijing. I booked my ticket through Leo Hostel, where I'm staying.


I'm pooped now. Will be heading to bed shortly, as I have to be up and ready for 7:30am tomorrow to head to the Great Wall. So far, Beijing is awesome.

* * *


Wowwwwwww! The Great Wall was unbelievable. I hiked 10km along it and it was just fantastic. The views from the wall are unparalleled and the wall itself is outrageous. I can't imagine how anybody was convinced to build such a thing. Well, I suppose if it's life or death, you'll choose life and build the wall, but lugging stones up several small mountains must have been challenging.

I'm sharing a room with two American girls and one from France, and as it turned out, we all went to the wall today. So we climbed together for the most part, which really made the trip more enjoyable. It's always better to share something beautiful with somebody than to just experience it on your own.

Now, some pictures:










And what better way to cap off a trip to the Great Wall of China than to sit in Beijing traffic for 1.5 hours? It was dreadful, but the bus had a constant stream of South Park on our way to the Wall and the Simpsons on the way back, which helped take the edge off. When I finally arrived back at the hostel, it was too late to make it to the Beijing Opera, so I just accompanied my roommates to Quanjude for a second night of Peking duck (it was their first, however). The verdict is in: Peking duck at Quanjude is unbelievably delicious.

My two big hitters left to see are the Forbidden City and then, if time remains, the Olympics grounds. I'll be visiting the Forbidden City tomorrow morning, but my flight to Shanghai takes off at 3:30pm, so I'm not sure if I'll have enough time to see both.

Anyway, all in all, Beijing has been a really great experience. Everyone I've met at the hostel has been very friendly and I've had a great deal of fun.


* * *

Today was moderately disastrous, but started well. Somehow, I've found my way back to Shanghai with a cold can of Suntory in my hand.


It all began with some dumplings-- what better way to start a day? I love dumplings. As planned, I headed to the Forbidden City and arrived at the gates a few minutes before they opened. I purchased the audio guide and explored the old "city" (it is actually called the Palace Museum). The guide was pretty cool! It activated commentary depending on where you were located within the premises. The Forbidden City itself was impressive, but became a bit monotonous by the end as all the buildings look similar.







A turtle statue with a dragon head? It really doesn't get better than that.

After the Forbidden City, I decided to head to the Olympics grounds before leaving Beijing. It took me a while to get there, and on the way I ran into a public gymnasium. At first I thought it was a park for children, but then I realized all the occupants were adults and were exercising. I didn't get a picture of it, but I did get a picture of the five public table tennis games going on just a few feet to the right of it.


After many steps, and many metro transfers, I arrived at the Olympics grounds. It was pretty impressive-- the National Stadium is huge. I recorded a video to give you an idea, but the internet is too slow here to upload. Sorry!



It just so happened that the International Tourism Festival was taking place when I visited the Olympics premises, so I saw many foreigners dressed in traditional outfits to their corresponding nations. It was pretty bizarre, but very welcomed. I suppose America was representing by sending Mickey and Minnie to hang out with the tourists.


Getting back to Shanghai was no easy task. In brief, I got on the wrong subway and ended up missing my airplane. I then failed to call Tom to inform him. I was put on a plane that was scheduled to leave at 5:30pm. It left at 6:00pm. When I arrived in Shanghai, the metro to my hostel cost 4 yuan, but I only had 3. I then searched the airport for some place to break my hundred yuan bill. I bought a large pepsi at KFC and boarded the subway. I originally planned to arrive at the hostel at 6:30pm. In actuality, I arrived at 9:15pm.

Alive and well.